


Gravitational Pull

by faithinthepoor



Series: Firefly [3]
Category: Firefly
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-07
Updated: 2013-01-07
Packaged: 2017-11-24 01:30:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/628793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/faithinthepoor/pseuds/faithinthepoor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set during Bushwacked</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gravitational Pull

**Author's Note:**

> In my series this follows [Event Horizons](http://archiveofourown.org/works/626636) and [Space They Cannot Touch](http://archiveofourown.org/works/626647)

The Alliance vessel is spacious and impeccably clean, she should feel more at home here, it is closer to the world that she came from than Serenity is, but instead she is disconcerted by the emptiness and sterility. The ship is huge and houses so many more people than their Firefly and yet it feels empty, lifeless, cold. Other than the occasional panel of flashing lights the only colour that she has seen comes from her crewmates and it says a lot about the environment that the Alliance creates when muddy earth tones seem vibrant. Due to her position she has been shown a little more respect than the others but she has been corralled into a large room along with the rest of them. Her people seem so very out of place, it is more than a matter of their appearance, they are far too active for this static realm. Even those who are sitting in silence, whether it is stoically like Zoey or belligerently like Jayne, have an undercurrent of action behind their stillness, they are built for fighting, ready to attack the second that it becomes necessary and their energy can not be caged.

Mal and the Shepard have separated off into a corner and are talking in hushed tones, their stance seems casual but she is sure that there is purpose behind their words. Wash, who is probably more incongruous than any of them in this setting seems completely oblivious to that fact and lounges on the floor as though he is completely at home. He offers sporadic quips on their current predicament but the real source of noise in the room is Kaylee who is pacing around and kicking at panels as she comments on the quality of the ship in a disparaging manner. Eventually Kaylee’s antics become too much for Mal, “Gorram it Kaylee, I told you to shut up, you are not helping the situation none.”

“But Captain look at this place, it ain’t a ship it’s a floating building, it’s got no soul, he ain’t got no right to say what he did about Serenity.”

Mal looks as though he is about to argue with the mechanic but then thinks better of it and instead gestures towards Inara, “Do something about her before she makes things worse for all of us.”

She straps on her best haughty attitude, “I am not a nursemaid employed to deal with your wayward crew, if you want her to be quiet, you can talk to Kaylee yourself.”

“Nee mum doh BEE-jway! We don’t need to be pissing these people off, I doubt they feel they need a reason to shoot us. Now if I ask very nicely would the two of you just sit quietly and braid one another’s hair and when this is over we can debate the duties that a whore is required to perform on my ship.”

Malcolm Reynolds really is the most infuriating man in the universe but somewhere in the stream of inappropriateness that he uttered was a reasonable point and she tables any argument for a more suitable time. Kaylee only seems to have heard the offensive parts of what he said, “You shouldn’t talk about Inara that way, you’re as bad as that purple belly.”

“It’s okay bao-bay I’m happy to braid your hair, come and sit with me,” she reaches out her hand and Kaylee sheepishly accepts. They don’t quite follow Mal’s instructions but Kaylee curls beside her and rests a head on her shoulder.

“This place is fei-oo not Serenity,” Kaylee’s attempt at defiance is lessoned by the contented sigh she gives as she moves closer and nuzzles at Inara’s neck.

“Hey, we are not alone,” she whispers.

“No-one’s looking,” Kaylee replies but in contrast to her words she moves her head back to its original position and begins wrapping a ringlet of Inara’s hair around her finger. “I don’t like people saying stuff that ain’t true about things I love.”

She kisses the top of Kaylee’s head, “Mal can say nice things too, he let those people have a funeral.” Mal’s response to Book’s request surprised her, he really is a conundrum, at times his actions are so disparate that it’s almost as if there is a schizophreniform split in his personality. She often wonders if he was always this way or if this is something that war does to a good man, breaks his spirit and fractures his soul.

“That was a real thing of pretty but that don’t give him no licence to be going around talking to you like he does, not when we need you more than you need us.” Kaylee is quite the enigma herself. Sometimes, like when she was playing the game with the crew, she seems so childlike and joyful that it gives Inara pause because she seems too good and too innocent to cope with what would be required from someone who is involved with a companion but then she makes comments about spending time with Simon that seem so deliberately provocative that Inara has to wonder if Kaylee is anywhere near as innocent as she appears. Kaylee may seem to be an open book but she is most certainly not, the only thing that Inara knows for sure is that Kaylee is fierce and loyal and far too trusting.

“It doesn’t bother me.”

“Yes it does, you’re not quite so good at hiding things as you think you are.”’

“We have other things to worry about right now.”

“Do you think the Captain’s right bout Reavers? That they just forgot who they were and became nothing?”

“I don’t know, I always thought they were just tales told to scare young children and to keep people closer to the Central Planets.”

“Something killed all them people.”

“I know.”

“I think it’s better if they’re monsters, I don’t like thinking that that could happen to people, that you can become nothing.”

“You won’t become nothing Kaylee.”

“I told ya, bad things happen out here.”

“Yes they do but not that.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“I just am.”

“Don’t matter that much, we’ll probably get arrested or shot before that happens.” Even now, with Kaylee’s body warm and safe beside her she doesn’t like to think about Kaylee and bullets and she is trying to think of a way of expressing this that would be compatible with the current public forum when the guards return to take Kaylee for her interview. Mal cautions Kaylee about causing undue trouble and she flashes him a beatific smile before winking at Inara and allowing herself to be led out of the room. Without Kaylee the room seems even emptier and the crew seem less cohesive. Whatever might lurk beneath the depths of her sunny disposition, Kaylee is the heart of this crew and they would all be less without her. She may have been naïve in her concern that Kaylee isn’t ready for a relationship with a companion, the problem might be that she is not yet ready for a relationship with someone like Kaylee but as she replays that smile and that wink in her mind she realises that she is in far too deep to back out now.


End file.
